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By FAVIUS FRIEDMAN
WHY
DIANE VARSI QUIT
HOLLYWOOD
j.
UST ONE MONTH, less four days, past her 21st birthday — on March 19th, 1959, to be exact — Diane Varsi suddenly gave up one of Hollywood's most promising careers and flew away with her baby son Shawn to the serenity of Bennington, Vermont. She had chosen to become a recluse at the age of 21.
"I don't know how I'll make a living in Bennington," she said, "but I'm giving up acting forever. I don't ever plan to return to Hollywood. I have never particularly cared for it."
Then she added, "I have saved a small amount of money from my earnings. When that runs out, I have no idea what I'll do."
The girl who had twice run away from home in her mid-teens, who had twice quit school to further her learning in libraries, was now running away again — this time, perhaps, to complete and utter oblivion.
Pale, wan and forlorn-looking, Diane bundled her 2V&-year_°hl son Shawn in her arms and stalked wordlessly, face set, down the long ramp at Los Angeles' International Airport to take the plane to what she hoped would be forgetfulness and peace. Clad in a shapeless wool coat; lugging, as always, her huge untidy wicker handbag, she studiously ignored the clamoring horde of newspaper people who yelped a barrage of questions at her. To all those who besieged her so stridently, she had but one comment: "I've already given my reasons for quitting Hollywood. I have nothing further to say."
Flanking her as she walked down her own "last mile" were her ex-husband, James Dickson, and a friend, actress Carol Eastman. At the gate where she was to board the plane, Diane handed little Shawn to Dickson while she rummaged through her cluttered handbag for her tickets'. She had neglected, or forgotten, to have her tickets validated at the United Airlines counter, but this was taken care of for her by the gate . . continued on page 16
In a gesture as puzzling as her own confused life, Diane gave up fame and fortune, here are the real reasons
HER SON, Shawn, two-and-a-half, was horn to her of a teenage marriage that was quickly annulled.